Category Archives: Investment outlook

China’s Industrial Slowdown Could Kill The Commodity Rally

Many commentators have fixated on levitating US securities markets, ignoring softening growth in Asia that is now hitting commodity prices

Hubert Horan: Can Uber Ever Deliver? Part Twenty-Five: Didi’s IPO Illustrates Why Uber’s Business Model Was Always Hopeless

Didi has a more commanding position than Uber in a fundamentally more attractive market, yet has been hemmorrhaging money.

Quelle Surprise! New Study Confirms that Public Pension Funds Use Flattering Benchmarks to Hide Failure to Beat Simple Indexing; CalPERS Is a Case Study

Documenting yet another way public pensions funds lie to themselves and their many constituencies about their performance.

The U.S. Shale Revolution Has Surrendered to Reality

The funding for shale production in the US has dried up as moneybags finally realize that there’s no profit to be had.

The Conflict Within OPEC Is Far From Over

Another byproduct of inflation generally and rising gas prices in particular is more eyes on OPEC.

Buyers’ Strike? Mortgage Applications Drop 8% Below 2019, as Home Buyers Get Second Thoughts about “Raging Mania”

Falling mortgage applications and rising home inventories signal a coming housing market pullback.

Decade Of Chaos Could Send Oil To $130 Per Barrel

Oil mavens are stymied at guessing what the commodity’s price trajectory might be.

Wolf Richter: Oh Lordy, Yellen Comes Out for Higher Interest Rates: “A Plus for Society’s Point of View and the Fed’s Point of View”

“We want them to go back to” a normal interest rate environment.

SoftBank-Funded Silicon Valley Unicorn Katerra, Which Was to “Transform” the Construction Industry, Collapses

Katerra, one of the rare unicorns with a real or at least plausible business, fell to Covid. Lawsuits will fly.

Federal Judge Nixes Proposed Monsanto Glysophate Settlement, Deepening Black Hole for Bayer

More on the well-deserved Monsanto litigation world of hurt.

Crypto Crackdown: Only the Beginning?

If you think the officialdom is getting tough with crypto, there’s even more they can do to tighten the screws.

Known Stock Market Leverage Hits WTF High. Out the Other Side of Its Mouth, the Fed Warns About Hidden Leverage that Blew up Archegos

Stock margin debt is the visible tip of the iceberg of leverage, and it has been growing at a zoo-has-gone-nuts rate.

We Really Do Need to Rethink the Economics of Saving, Most of Which Is Nonsense

Savings plays an important role in household management (or does when the household isn’t desperate), yet economists don’t get it.

The Corporate Food Takeover

Corporate ownership in many sectors of food production has risen and is set to increase further. Another rentier program well underway.

California Judiciary Committee Gives Blistering Assessment of CalPERS’ Fiduciary Duty Failings in Analysis of Fraud-Friendly Private Debt Secrecy Bill

The Judiciary Committee’s analysis of a CalPERS-sponsored bill shows that Sacramento is noticing the fund’s chicanery and incompetence.